“This Mr. Zeng Xi Xian is the mentor of Gu Shanlu, the imperial censor. Regarding the Eastern Tatar envoy case, I owe Censor Gu a favor. Although his teacher has committed a forbidden act, his crime does not warrant death. He has been in prison for some time and has suffered enough,” Fu Shen said. “So I wanted to ask if you could intervene and see if you could show mercy and release this old gentleman?”
Yan Xiaohan’s eyes gradually grew cold.
“Jing Yuan,” he lowered his eyes to look at the ink characters on the page, “have you truly forgotten, or are you deliberately reminding me?”
Fu Shen said, “What are you talking about?”
“The Jin Yunfeng case,” Yan Xiaohan raised his eyes, his gaze as if frosted with ice and snow. “After seven years, are you still trying to test me with a similar case? Aren’t you afraid I might relapse and stab you in the back again?”
Normally, anyone who dared to speak to him like this would have received a slap, but today Fu Shen was unusually calm and composed. He simply said peacefully, “You’re overthinking. I’m not trying to test you, I just have a request. Is that not allowed?”
Yan Xiaohan said impatiently: “Not allowed, for the sake of another man.”
Fu Shen was almost driven to laughter by him, and forcibly restrained himself: “What if there’s compensation?”
Yan Xiaohan: “What compensation?”
“I gave you two Lingxiao flower jade pendants,” Fu Shen said.
“If you help me with this, those two jade pendants will serve as proof. One pendant counts as one favor, and you will comply with any request. How’s that?”
Like a thunderbolt striking from the sky, Yan Xiaohan was completely frozen.
His consciousness seemed to float outside his body, and he heard himself ask blankly: “What was the other favor?”
Fu Shen returned his own words: “The Jin Yunfeng case. What, after seven years, you don’t remember?”
He knew everything.
For Yan Xiaohan, being unable to speak multiple times in a day was an unprecedented experience. At this moment, he suddenly understood the reason behind all of Fu Shen’s actions since morning.
Fu Shen had given himself to him, offering his entire heart.
There was no precedence, no question of who was worthy. By chance and destiny, they were a perfect match.
